Saturday 17 October: Buckingham town centre is choked with fairground vehicles, amongst which Betsy Lee, clairvoyant, offers to tell your fortune in her tent in the market square.

Three miles away, in the airy Stowe cafe, five NWP MK writers (aged between 11 and 61) undertake their own clairvoyance. First we drink coffee and listen to the words of Natalie Goldberg and Moniza Alvi. Then we talk about the importance of letting go into your own writing, the delight of discovery, and the affirmation that comes from daring to share.

​Twenty minutes later we are chuckling at the zombie's last sentence, wincing as a car's story is crushed into a haiku, and being introduced to the anonymous lady at the far table who tastes the tang of bergamot in her hot tea and sighs. This, we discover, is the courageous Miss Winkworth who is trying to make a good death. Her back story emerges out of the autumn mist - as if we had crossed Betsy's palm with silver. NWP is magic.